In Israel's north, war-weary residents feel abandoned by government
Whenever war rocks northern Israel, residents of Kiryat Shmona live their lives to the rhythm of rocket sirens. Young people have left the city, and those who remain feel neglected by the government.
Some mere three kilometers from Lebanon, this northern settlement is living through its second war in less than three years, not counting Israel's 12-day war with Iran last June, or the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Residents say they trust the army will once and for all "deal with Hezbollah," the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group targeting the north with rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.
But they feel tired of living in fear of projectiles from the sky and want to be heard by the government.
A lower-income city mainly housing Jews of Moroccan origin, Kiryat Shmona has almost always voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.
But in a recent video that went viral on social media, mayor Avichai Stern accused the government of neglecting his city under attack.
"The government doesn't understand Kiryat Shmona. It doesn't understand what our children are going through," Ayala Amar, a 56-year-old educational assistant, told AFP.
"There are no jobs here, there is nothing. We live in a half-empty city. If we were in Tel Aviv or in Haifa, they would invest funds," said the mother of quadruplets.
Like all northern residents, Amar and her family were evacuated during the last conflict with Hezbollah, which broke out in the wake of Hamas' unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the Gaza war.
They returned to Kiryat Shmona after a ceasefire took effect at the end of 2024.
"And now it's starting again. It never ends," she sighed, as artillery fire towards Lebanon echoed outside.
This time, however, the government has decided not to evacuate residents of the north and sent ground troops to try and clear south Lebanon of Hezbollah fighters.
- Nights in shelter -
Adva Cohen also returned after an initial evacuation in 2023.
Today, the 38-year-old mother of four spends her life between her home and the few meters separating it from the municipal shelter. She sleeps there every night, with her neighbor and friend Olga, a mother of six.
"In Kiryat Shmona there is simply no life," Cohen said. Her nail salon has been closed since the fighting resumed on March 2.
"The government is doing its best, I suppose. But it needs to see us, to listen to us -- the residents of the region on the front line," she said as she laid out mattresses in the shelter for the night.
"It's exhausting. We don't have a place to breathe, to go have a coffee -- just the basics," said Cohen, who longs to "find calm, silence again."
Passover, the Jewish holiday beginning Wednesday evening, and her twins' birthday next week will both be held in the shelter.
- Live like Tel Aviv -
Of Kiryat Shmona's 25,000 pre-October 7 population, less than half remain.
"Half of the people are elderly, and the second half are babies," said Raz Malka, a 25-year-old who chose to move back to Kiryat Shmona after his studies "so as not to let the city die."
"The nation has to understand that... we want to live the life here under the same terms as anyone living in Tel Aviv and in every part (of the country)," he said.
"People need development, they need infrastructure, they need services," he added, accusing the government of having "abandoned" Kiryat Shmona.
According to Mayor Stern, who responded in writing to AFP's questions, "of the roughly 10,000 residents who remained in the city, about one in four depends on social services."
One clinic operates in Kiryat Shmona, but the nearest general hospital is in Safed, 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the south.
Most businesses have shut down and relocated their activity, like Margalit Startup City, an ambitious FoodTech complex inaugurated in 2021 that was meant to symbolize regional development.
But with the war on the northern front -- which sprang up in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran launched on February 28 -- security remains the "absolute priority" for the mayor of Kiryat Shmona.
He is calling for more shelters and for the evacuation of the most vulnerable.
"I am aware of your great hardship," Netanyahu said Sunday in a statement addressed to northern residents.
Assuring that he had instructed officials to assist northern communities "very generously," he asked them for their "continued patience."
Source: Agence France Presse
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